Be careful about kids learning skepticism. It might lead to a reduction in the
faith accorded one's religious leaders.

Of course, this may
not be such a bad thing. History is replete with so-called ministers, apostles,
priests or gurus who peddle their own superiority along with a healthy dose of
greed and criminality.

True faith comes from your heart, not from the
pulpit. Of course, that generally flies in the face of orthodoxy from any faith
tradition and generally comes from good, healthy does of skepticism.

Skepticism doesn't mean rejecting things out of hand, it means to
critically consider them. When presented with the information that we have
prophets on the earth today, for instance, a skeptic doesn't simply dismiss
it out of hand-such is no skeptic, but a cynic and a fool. A skeptic seeks to
know whether or not such a claim is really true, and it may well be.

When told that "it's all a crock" and that one best achieves
happiness by indulging in their every immediate carnal whim without restraint,
it would be a skeptic's duty to carefully analyze such a claim, looking at
the results and the lives of those who embody it.

Skeptic: ...and what enlightened truths have you derived from your "free
thinking" that you can pass along to us sheep? I haven't seen much of
a consensus from our free thinkers that they can pass along to us sheep to
better our lives, so I have to search them out one at a time for some possible
clues that will make mankind reach a higher level! What, may I ask, can you
tell me?